Hardy Heron Beta - Alias Ubuntu 8.04

The Ubuntu team has released the first, and probably only, beta version of the next generation of Ubuntu with Long Term Support (LTS), Ubuntu 8.04.

Hardy Heron Beta - Alias Ubuntu 8

The final edition of Ubuntu Hardy Heron is scheduled for release in April. The support periods of 36 months for the desktop version and 60 months for the server, which are geared to the needs of professional users, only apply to the Gnome variant of Ubuntu. The Kubuntu variants with the KDE desktop do not offer long term support. While Ubuntu 8.04 uses Gnome 2.22, there are two versions of Kubuntu 8.04: one with the tried-and-trusted KDE 3.5.9 and another with a version of the new KDE 4.0.

Apart from this, the beta uses kernel 2.6.24-12.13 and X.org 7.3. The KVM virtualization solution replaces the Xen hypervisor in the server version. Libvirt and Virt Manager are available for creating and managing virtual machines.

Ubuntu 8.04 is available for x86 computers and for 64-bit machines with the AMD and AMD64 and EMT64 CPUs. Download links and additional information are available from the website here. The KDE version, Kubuntu 8.04, now has a separate Wiki page.

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Based on the release policy of Ubuntu and its KDE derivative Kubuntu, the next version of Kubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) scheduled for mid January would be a Long Term Support (LTS) version with three years support. Now, Kubuntu's chief developer Jonathan Riddell has announced that there will not be an LTS version; instead Kubuntu is relying on the KDE 4 desktop update.

Ubuntu is working on the next but one release, 8.10, codenamed Intrepid Ibex. Ubuntu promoter and Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth launched the next round of development in the traditional way by naming the product.

Linux developers Canonical has released important security updates for the Ubuntu kernel, strongly recommending upgrades for releases 6.06 LTS, 7.10 and 8.04 LTS and corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.